… and we are off. The first, shiny new blog post of the year is here! I hope you had a restful end to 2022 and are looking forward to what 2023 may bring. I am still on holiday, having taken some overdue leave and I am enjoying the extra rest. It’s giving me time to catch up with my thoughts, do some exercise and celebrate my partner’s birthday with a trip to the coast.…
Maren Deepwell Posts
It’s Winter Solstice today and over the past few years this has become the date on which I write my review of the year. For me, these reflections are a helpful way to wind down from work and move to focus on things away from screens, to get outdoors, walk the dogs and enjoy the luxury of not having a schedule. Posey, who is asleep in her basket next to me, has been my work…
This blog post is a signpost.. one of many “I am leaving this platform… follow me on here” messages that folk are sharing at the moment in the wake of the continued [insert your own word here] on Twitter. So if you’d like to connect professionally, follow my updates or learn more about my work, here’s where to find me: Read, listen, subscribe Monthly newsletterI send out a monthly email newsletter with updates about my…
Since the summer I have a deckchair in my office. And I love it. It’s a space saving and relatively cheap piece of furniture that offers an alternative place to sit, relax and read. It’s strange that I never thought of having one before. Once I put it up in my office, I was immediately convinced. Of course, not everyone has a home office and not everyone has the space for an additional piece of…
Our team is currently moving to Asana. “Asana is a web and mobile “work management” platform designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work.” This is a big moment, as we have tried and not adopted various other similar tools including Basecamp, Trello, Google Tasks and Project Management tools within Google Workspace. However, things are finally moving into place, and with a couple of colleagues alreday familiar with and/or inspired by the platform,…
It’s been such a pleasure to celebrate the launch of the Leading Virtual Teams book last week, and a special moment for me as it is my first solo book publication. This post brings all the resources and information about the book together in one place, so whether you’d like to catch up or take a deeper dive, jump right in: About the book Leading Virtual Teams – Field Notes from a CEO by Dr Maren…
With the holiday season coming up, our team has had a long overdue in person Team Day and we are also planning a virtual get together in a few weeks. These social activities are important to virtual teams, and I really value the opportunity to spend time with colleagues in a more relaxed way. Blended approaches to working together can help shape the dynamic of the year, and punctuate long periods of remote working with…
In the past couple of months I had the wonderful opportunity to work on a project outside my day job. Together with the awesome folk at Reclaim EdTech, and working closely with Lauren Hanks, we embarked on a journey to design and run a four week flex course all about hybrid working. It was interesting to learn more about the format of flex courses, which are run regularly each month in the Reclaim EdTech community…
I miss being a runner. It’s been more than two years since I ran Half Marathons, and whilst I have never been particularly competitive, I miss the balance and headspace running used to offer me. For 2020/21, I am definitely giving myself a lot of grace. Running was not a priority as life imploded. I had a lot going on that year besides COVID. For the past 14 months, running had to take a back…